Grateful for you.

I have been out of touch for quite some time. It has been a heck of a year…more on that to come… but tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving. I know it is cliché, but today I really did wake up with an urge to reach out and send a note of gratitude to you. Thank you for each being a part of my community in some way. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to fulfill my dharma (purpose) by sharing with you all the teachings and inspirations given to me by my teachers. It is an honor and I truly am grateful.

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays – a true time of gathering with friends and family and reflecting on all the bounty and blessings in our lives. As challenging as this year has been for so many people I know, once we stop and reflect back, there is still so much to be thankful for and celebrate.

The late Wayne Dyer said that abundance is not something we attain, but something we tune into. This simple statement shifted a lot for me. Rather than outwardly push and strive to achieve some level of “abundance”, we can simply tune into our hearts, our breath, our bodies, and recognize all the plentitude that already is. And on the days when it is extra difficult to attune to gratitude, we can simply turn to our breath, be grateful for the gift of life, and the hope that a new day brings.

On this holiday of giving thanks, I tune in to appreciate the abundance of my life and the blessings that are continuously bestowed upon me once I soften my rigid ideas about how those blessings should look or appear in my life.

What are you grateful for?

Where is there abundance in your life that can you tune into?

Something a wise one taught me is that when working with gratitude, specificity increases the sensation of appreciation. In the book The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Anchor suggests that one reason sometimes gratitude lists aren’t always effective is because we often list the same things over and over and it’s sort of general – like “I’m grateful for my health, my partner, my best friend.” But if we get more specific like “I’m grateful for my puppy and how he groans in his sleep as he burrows himself into my lap” then it creates a deeper sense of appreciation than a generic list. So on this holiday, I encourage you to really tune into the abundance in your life and consider the specific details about your blessings and the gratitude you feel.

There are so many reasons to cultivate gratitude – not just on special holidays, but each and every day! Gratitude eases our anxiety and despair, it creates a sense of fullness from within, gratitude creates even more to be grateful for, and perhaps most importantly, gratitude just feels good!

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for the special place you hold in my heart.